Manchester United were shown the Capital One Cup exit door at the Riverside Stadium last night after having lost 3-1 on penalties following misses by Wayne Rooney, Michael Carrick and Ashley Young.
This now means that the Red Devils have now lost their last four penalty shootouts despite Dutch manager Louis van Gaal having the players practice spot kicks during training.
“It is more like the casino, red or black,” Van Gaal said after the game. “They were lucky but of course you can force the luck.
“We trained yesterday on penalties, but it is like that. I cannot take them.”
LVG added: “My feeling is that we were so close, and that we have to finish because we have created a lot of chances – especially in the second half and in extra time.
“We had chances from one metre, two metres in front of the goal. We have to finish those.”
United defender Chris Smalling is certain that the team will bounce back from the defeat when they take on Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park on Saturday afternoon (3pm).
“Everyone’s very flat in the dressing room,” Smalling told MUTV.
“I think we put in our all for the entire 120 minutes and I think as the game got on we got stronger.
“We had quite a lot of chances but it just didn’t break our way today.
“I think we’ll take the disappointment tonight but tomorrow we need to turn our attentions immediately to Saturday, because it’s another big game, an away game, and we need a response from tonight.”
Here at Soccer Transfers we feel that this match is our bet of the weekend with BET365 offering odds of 11/10 for a Manchester United away win.
And we don’t just base our tip on the fact we think United were unlucky to lose last night, and like Smalling feel that they will have a point to prove, but are encouraged by the words of Crystal Palace manager Alan Pardew after comments he made regarding the situation with his team.
“Cabaye was injured and we’re sweating on him for Saturday,” Pardew told reporters.
However, the London club also have other injury concerns to worry about and will be without striker Marouane Chamakh and Connor Wickham.
And full-back Pape Souare will leave a big hole down the left flank for Palace, having played in all but one league game this term.
“Connor and Chamakh are both training but they won’t make Saturday for sure, Pape, same again, and he is an important player for us down that left-hand side,” he added
Given the South Londoner’s injury worries and United’s determination to bounce back from the draw with Manchester City we feel this is a match United must win to show they are true title contenders.
